Art Student: Realist or Abstract Art?

I found this quote in A Concise History of Modern Painting– my current bedside book.

“To paint an autumn landscape I will not try to remember what colours suit the season, I will be inspired only by the sensation that the season gives me; the icy clearness of the sour blue sky will express the season just as well as the tonalities of the leaves. My sensation itself may vary, the autumn may be soft and warm like a protracted summer or quite cool with a cold sky and lemon yellow trees that give a chilly impression and announce winter.”

Autumn Landscape with Boats – Kadinsky 1908

It is a dense read that usually puts me to sleep, but as someone who never pondered over Matisse’s artwork I found it to be interesting …and awakening to learn his thought process. 

A little (academic) dream come true

About a month ago I wrote the post What if we change the role of “teachers as educators” to “teachers as incubators”? that encourages the use of systematic and reputable video tutorials by teachers. Well, edX is one step ahead of the game, by offering not only complete courses, but also certificates that are predicted to be accepted by colleges within the coming year.

Traditional online courses charge tuition, carry credit and limit enrollment to a few dozen to ensure interaction with instructors. The MOOCs (massive open online courses), on the other hand, offered by edX are free, credit-less and, well, massive.

https://www.edx.org/

Today is the day where I pick my classes for next semester. As a senior entering my second semester, I would love to take a class on computer science. Here’s the problem. In my second semester, the intro class is not offered, and the rest of the classes have prerequisites, so I am at a loss. Or am I?

https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CS50x/2012/about

“We reject about 98 percent of faculty who want to teach with us. Just because a person is the world’s most famous economist doesn’t mean they are the best person to teach the subject.” Dr. Stavens sees a day when MOOCs will disrupt how faculty are attracted, trained and paid, with the most popular “compensated like a TV actor or a movie actor.” He adds that “students will want to learn from whoever is the best teacher.”

“We desperately need crowdsourcing,” says Cathy N. Davidson, a Duke professor of English and interdisciplinary studies. “We need a MOOCE — massive open online course evaluation.”

Join the movement.

The DOE Encourages Cheating

One of the ongoing trends in the news has been the rise of cheating in America’s prestigious schools.  My old high school, Stuyvesant, and even universities, like Harvard, have been plagued by this new phenomenon that has left many people perplexed.  A lot of explanations were offered as to why a Stuyvesant student decided to send a mass text to seventy-one other students on a state issued Regents exam. “This self-admitted cheater lacks both honesty and any moral compass. And no, it’s not the fault of the schools or the teachers, but clearly his family has failed to teach him the basics of right and wrong,” responded Mugsy66 on a New Yorker article. Meanwhile, the newly appointed principal, post-scandal, of Stuyvesant High School told reporters “I have not been made aware … or have a reason to believe that there is ongoing cheating there.”  Well, newsflash – everybody cheats at Stuyvesant High School, and we’re not the only school with cheaters. If you’re my age, you won’t be surprised to learn that 75-98% of college students surveyed each year have admitted to cheating in high school.

If you are of the older generation and are perplexed by such high percentages, it is because times are changing – only 20% of college students admitted to cheating in high school during the 1940s. The reason being is not poor parenting or a shrinkage of the temporo-

What if we change the role of “teachers as educators” to “teachers as incubators”?

The Khan Academy, started in 2006, currently has at least 3400 tutorial videos on the subjects of Math, Science, Computer Science, Finance, Economics, Humanities and Test Prep (SAT, GMAT etc.). Subjects are taught in depth – lessons on polynomials alone span through 79 videos; matrices, 33. As classes are rapidly translated to video tutorials available online, should the role of the teacher begin to change? Years ago in high school, I sought the help of random Youtube videos when I was learning trigonometry. My teacher spoke with a heavy dialect and I received little from being in class. I would’ve benefited a lot from comprehensive tutorial videos from a respectable source such as the Khan Academy, which had only just begun then. Now they’re legitimate tutorials coming in from respectable sources everywhere: University of Michigan, Berkley, Chicago, and business schools of Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, UPenn, and NYU are just some examples of colleges getting in on this. Then there are sources that range from the likes of Khan Academy, Freelance Teacher, to TED talks. Not only is every popular subject covered, but also the quality of teaching is top-notch, clear and reliable.

This sudden shift of knowledge to be made easily accessible online could perhaps change the role of the teacher. Not replace, but change. The teacher-student and student-student connection is without a doubt very important to learning and irreplaceable. So as video lectures inevitably grow popular, teachers need to emphasize being an incubator more than ever – to have students synthesize ideas and projects from data, as well as to motivate students to learn.

Why Consume Art: Aesthetics, Status, or Cultural Authority?

This blog post comes from a new class I am taking called Money and Ethics in the Contemporary Art World at Tufts University. Here are the notes and thoughts I found interesting that are drawn from Derrick Chong’s “Stakeholder relationships in the market for contemporary art” regarding art consumption and appreciation. 

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Consuming Art for Aesthetics, Status, or Cultural Authority?

Aesthetics – Although this seems to be a given, I feel like there is more to what simply meets the eye.

The more you know, the more you appreciate art and thus satisfaction from arts consumption rises over time in many cases. However, this is debated over two opposing views.

Be a Friend to your Customer. First.

Stranger -> Friend -> Customer

That middle step is a very important in building brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is what brings returning customers.  Making friends often comes from customer service, but let’s not get it confused with the process of Stranger -> Customer -> Friend.

Don’t wait, start right away.

If you are creating a website, segment your target demographics right away, and cater to them. Are you from New York or out of state? If you’re from out of state, click here, and check out this site with only information relevant to NYers. Look we even catered everything to you, complete with a joke about how the NY subway system is such a pain in the ass! We understand what you are going through and where you are coming from; we are trustworthy.

Why should a season ticket holder be treated like an average ticket holder? Cater to each!

You understand your customer, because your business works, so show it.

Top 3 Thought Provoking News of the Week – Demise of Blogging; Trends; More Harsh Realities

Pitch: The Rise of Visual Media. The Demise of Blogging?

http://www.fastcompany.com/3000794/rise-visual-social-media?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Takeaway:  800 word blog posts -> 400 word blog posts -> 140 character Twitter posts -> (no words) Pinterest

Search engines now rank content based on social conversations and sharing, not just websites alone.

Thought Provoked: I think this is one of many big elephants in the room we all choose to ignore. Video is the future. There’s no doubt about it. It is one of the biggest trends in marketing. Even some books have movie-like trailers to entice buyers. It is the ultimate

Group Work Experiments – You Fooled Me Once, Twice…Now Stop Fooling Me!

I have fallen victim to so many surprise group work tests.

Seth Godin: Ok, now it’s time to use what we’ve learned the past two days to create a book from scratch. You have 2 hours to brainstorm ideas, write, and design the book to be published from scratch. The topic is “How to be an Impresario on Campus.”

A half hour later:

Seth Godin: Stop stop stop. What’s going wrong?

*It’s a good thing he came in early to help nudge us into the right direction. Here is our finished work. I think we are all quite proud of it.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/impresario.pdf

Cut Consumer Hassle, Make Bank

Follow this example:

To calculate if a pay per click (PPC) campaign is worth it, create a chart.

How much does it cost per click (CPC)?

$2? OK.

What’s the chance the lead won’t leave your site right away – what’s the chance of a second click?

50%? OK. That’s  $4.

Top 3 Thought Provoking News of The Week – Robots and Spoiled Millenials Take Over

Pitch: It doesn’t take much to self-publish. Here’s how:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/technology/personaltech/ins-and-outs-of-publishing-your-book-via-the-web.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Takeaway: This is more of a re-realization on how easy it is to create something. For my college application I created an illustrated resume through Lulu.com. When I was at orientation, the Dean of Admissions remembered my book, came up to me, and commended me on it. It no longer takes “$5,000 to $10,000” to publish something. It just takes acting out on your plans.

Thought Provoked: If I were to write about something, what would I write about? In what ways could it benefit me and others?